Analysis: Monster & Object

Through the examinations of the medieval and Middle Eastern texts to the study of East Asian ceramics, we see polarized views - two cultures and how they view dragons juxtaposed. 

In the medieval and Middle Eastern cultures, dragons are seen as monsters. The Shahnameh portrays dragons with tyrannical-like power - as obstacles that the protagonist must defeat, and describes them as feared, poisonous, and deadly. In contrast, East Asian cultures see dragons as symbols of luck, power, and fortune. Chinese funerary jars incorporate dragons into the design to aid the dead in the afterlife, and vases hold stories of dragons to encapsulate this symbol for good fortune.

It proposes an interesting thought - how do different cultures with different perspectives view the same creature? Our analysis tries to explain this: even though dragons from both societies are similar in concept - large, powerful, and serpent-like, the way society forms symbols around them are independent. They come from a need from the culture (Palmer 2021) - they are fluid, not fixed. Symbols simplify the world around us - they act as a way to condense abstract ideas and associations into concepts we can easily understand. Whether that be symbols in colours, objects, monsters, the way a culture thinks will dictate the way they perceive symbolic concepts. A dragon can be both good and evil. 

So at its core, a dragon is just a mythical creature. It can mean an obstacle one must overcome to become stronger, or a sign of hope and good fortune. It can mean whatever anyone wants it to mean, because at the end of the day, a dragon does not have to be bound by any single word.